What the modern world has devoted its entire energy to bringing about, even when it
has claimed to be pursuing science in its own way, is really nothing but the development of industry and machinery; and in thus seek­ing to dominate matter and to mould it to their purposes, men have
only succeeded, as we said at the beginning, in turning themselves into its slaves; for not only have they restricted their intellectual ambitions ... but they have also ended by turning into mere machines themselves.